Women Writers and the Construction of National Identities in the Long 19th Century. Comparative Perspectives (Bâle, Suisse & en ligne)
Située au croisement des études féminines et des études impériales, cette manifestation scientifique très innovante et ambitieuse vise à répondre aux questions suivantes : la subordination des femmes aux hommes, inhérente à la conception patriarcale du corps social, n’est-elle pas rendue encore plus étouffante lorsque les empires marginalisent certains groupes ethniques, forçant les femmes à lutter à la fois pour leurs propres droits et pour les droits de leur nation et/ou de leur culture ? Et, au-delà de l’histoire des droits des femmes, les femmes qui ont contribué au progrès de la démocratie et à l’émancipation culturelle de leur pays ne devraient-elles pas être sorties de l'ombre ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous partirons du long XIXe siècle, considéré comme l'âge de l'invention des identités nationales, et nous verrons comment ce mouvement d’entrelacement des discours pour l’autodétermination nationale et des luttes pour la souveraineté morale et culturelle des femmes se poursuit au XXe siècle. Ce sera également l’occasion de discuter de la pertinence de la périodicité de cette division en siècles.
Avec la participation d’Oleksandra Matviichuk, Prix Nobel de la Paix en 2022
Situated at the crossroads of women’s studies and imperial studies, this highly innovative and ambitious scientific event aims to answer the following guiding questions: is not women’s subordination to men inherent in the patriarchal conception of the social body made even more suffocating when empires peripheralise ethnic groups, forcing women to fight both for their own rights and for the rights of their nation and culture? And, beyond the history of women’s rights, should women who have contributed to the progress of democracy and the cultural emancipation of their countries not be brought out of the shadows? To answer these questions, we will start from the long 19th century, considered as the age of the invention of national identities, and we will see how this movement of intertwining of discourses for national self-determination and struggles for the moral and cultural sovereignty of women continues in the 20th century. This will also be an opportunity to discuss the relevance of the periodicity of this division into centuries.
With the participation of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Oleksandra Matviichuk
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Zoom
Meeting ID: 655 4484 7386 Access Code: 119065
Send an email to osteuropa-geschichte@unibas.ch should you have problems connecting to the meeting.
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Organization
Dr. Nikol Dziub (Basel), Prof. Dr. F. Benjamin Schenk (Basel), Dr. Anna Hodel (Basel).
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Support
This workshop was made possible with the help of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Ukrainian Research in Switzerland (URIS), the Profilbereich Osteuropa
and the Albrecht’sche Reisefonds of the University of Basel.
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Program
Day 1 - 10. April 2025 (Europainstitut, Riehenstrasse 154, Raum A 3911)
09:15 Welcome and introduction by Nikol Dziub, Anna Hodel and F. Benjamin Schenk (Basel)
09:30-10:30 Keynote address by Agatha Schwartz (Ottawa, Canada)
«Negotiating Sisterhood Across National Boundaries: Lessons Learned from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy»
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:00 Panel 1: National Women Writers (Chair: Anna Hodel)
Lena Magnone (Lyon, France) «Women as National Writers: A Central-European Appendix to La Fabrique de l’écrivain national»
Nikol Dziub (Basel) «The Ukrainian Paradigm: Lesya Ukrainka between History and Imagi-Nation»
12:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 Panel 2: Women Writers and Nation-Building (Chair: Agatha Schwartz)
Alla Shvec (Lviv, Ukraine) «‘In the Name of Our National Unity’: the Tradition and Significance of Women’s Writing in the Nation-Building Processes of Ukraine»
Sylvie Marchenoir (Dijon, France) «German Nation-Building and Women’s Emancipation in the Writings of German Women Writers from 1840 to 1918»
15:00-15:20 Coffee Break
15:20-15:45 Round-table (moderated by Nikol Dziub): Democracy and Women Voices
With 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk, Center for Civil Liberties, Kyjiv; and Slava Svitova, Co-Founder and CEO at Creative Women Publishing.
15:50-16:50 Panel 3: Women’s Writing and Imperial Identities (Chair: Nikol Dziub)
F. Benjamin Schenk (Basel) «The Empire - a Men’s Project? Markers of Imperial Identity in Female Autobiographical Writing of Russian Noblewomen (Late 19th Century)»
Catherine Géry (INALCO, Paris, France) (online) «The ‘New Woman’ in the Imperial Context: Grandeur and Misery of a Russian Notion»
16:50-17:00 Concluding Remarks
Day 2 - 11. April 2025 (Universität Basel, Kollegienhaus, Petersplatz 1, Mehrzweckraum 035)
09:00-10:00 Panel 4: Women Writers and the Mapping of Identities (Chair: Marion Schulze)
Susan Layton (Paris, France) «A Feminist Deviation from Russian Imperialist Nationalism: Evodkia Rostopchina’s Allegory of the Rape of Poland»
Falestin Naili (Basel) «Fadwa Tuqan: the Mountainous Journey of a Palestinian Poet of the 20th Century»
10:00-10:20 Coffee Break
Panel 5: Feminists and National Storytelling (Chair: Olena Palko)
Marion Schulze (Basel) «Modernity Stitched. Feminist Storying of 19th-Century Britain»
Elena Gueorguieva (Paris, France) «Out of Focus: The Marginalization of Women Writers in Discourses Shaping Bulgarian National Identity»
Kateryna Tarasiuk (Strasbourg, France) «Revisiting The First Garland: The Significance of the Feminist Almanac for Today’s Women’s Movement in Ukraine»
12:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:30 Panel 6: Women Writers and the Norms of Identity (Chair: Lena Magnone)
Yvonne Pörzgen (Bochum, Germany) «The Pillars of Society: Gender, Ethnicity and Social Status in Gabriela Zapolska’s Novels»
Anna Hodel (Basel) «Feminism, Transnationalism and the Mountains: Climbing and Foresight in the Illyrian works of Dragojla Jarnević»
Philine Bickhardt (Zurich) «Othering and Orientalism in Jelena Dimitrijević’s Travel Writing»
15:30-15:50 Coffee Break
15:50-16:00 Concluding Remarks
17:00 City walking tour for participants.